I was up early this morning so I baked some fresh pies to take to church with me. There were a few people I wanted to thank, and nothing spells thankfulness like a homemade berry pie. I made three blueberry pies before church, three after church, and three at dinnertime. It was a pie-makin’ day for sure. I’ve never used that recipe before but my neighbor swore by it, and based on the sampling we had tonight of one of those babies, she was right. It was shum-dilly-icious. We all had seconds.
The first person to get a pie this morning at church was our youth pastor. I had to thank him for bringing my sweet boy back home alive from youth camp. He showed the church a video montage of the activities the youth group did at this camp, and I must say, I should have baked him two pies. Talk about dangerous! I’m so glad I didn’t have to see Kaleb repelling off the sides of cliffs or climbing up those rock faces. Kaleb rock climbed 11 times as he was pretty quick on his feet, so I’m all the more thankful he wasn’t hurt. Thank you God, and Pastor Chad for keeping my boy safe.
The other guy I gave a pie to was the guy who gave me access to the blueberries. I ran the pie back to him during the “greeting one another” time. His wife said they were planning on having guests over for dinner tonight and she wanted to make a pie, but didn’t have time. Right away the guy said, “It’s a God thing!” That warmed my heart… to know he recognizes how the Holy Spirit moves in us because something sure got me up early this morning to bake pies. I didn’t set the alarm and our freezer is already full of blueberries so I had to do something with them. I love it when God gets the credit!
This afternoon we dropped a pie off at a guy’s house down the street that came by and gave us some advice on what to do with our summer kitchen “remodel.” He’s an interior designer and we wanted to check with him if our ideas were good ones. He thought they were and he added to them so now we have a plan to move forward. We expected to pay him for his time but he wouldn’t hear of it, so a homemade pie was just the ticket.
Our neighbor got another pie because they always pick up our mail when we’re out of town. We’re heading down to Seattle tomorrow and we’re taking four of the pies with us to drop off in various places to people we love and are thankful for. I need to do this more often as it brings such joy to people, even before they taste it!
After a great sermon at church today, we came home and once the second round of pies were done, we decided to go for a bike ride. We live in such an incredibly beautiful place and we’re only minutes from some amazing recreational treasures. Yesterday we were at Pass Lake kayaking in 20 minutes, and today, in just 10 minutes, we were at the trailhead of the Tommy Thompson. We parked the car, offloaded the bikes and headed on into Anacortes on that lovely flat trail that used to be train tracks. I’ve never been all the way down it, nor had Kory or Kaleb, so we all enjoyed discovering what was along the way, stopping to sample blackberries and take a few photos.
We rode on into town and down around the marinas til we came to another previously unknown location – the Rotary Park beach. What a treasure that place is. My butt was thankful we stopped there to rest. Kory and Kaleb stacked rocks while I just stood around and watched them for awhile. Wild dill was growing like weeds all around there and Kaleb was pleased to demonstrate one of their hidden flavors. His pal, Spencer, showed him that chewing on the stem of dill tastes like licorice. It’s true! We put some in our pockets, got on the bikes and headed back to where we started. It was a simply gorgeous day and many people were out enjoying the trail – riding bikes, walking and jogging but it didn’t feel crowded at all. We’ll have to do that again, when my butt gets over this trip. Uff.
Kory made dinner tonight and even cleaned up the mess afterwards. I think the thought of having pie for dessert motivated him a little. Kaleb asked me tonight if I know how to make apple pie. I guess I’ve probably never made one in his lifetime. He’s only seen me make pumpkin and pecan pies at Thanksgiving. So much for his "Mom and apple pie" childhood memories. I told him I’d show him how to make an apple pie and he can make one anytime he wants. He was fine with that idea.
It feels like today was our last day of summer because tomorrow we’re packing up and heading out of town for a few weeks. We’re giving Kaleb a jump start on “social studies” for this year by visiting Philadelphia, New York, and Washington DC. We’re staying with friends some days, in hotels others. I’m not sure how much internet access I’ll have so I’ll write everyday but not sure I can post it all regularly. The weather back east has been crazy lately so I’m just hoping nothing drastic happens and we’re able to visit all the places we have mapped out. But life happens, so we’ll see. If nothing else, we’ve had a pretty good summer these last few weeks and it’ll hold me for awhile.
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